In
Preparing for a Healthy Birth ‘old natural’ is the phrase used to describe the
way ‘natural’ has been approached over the last few decades. Occasionally, it’s
resulted in a beautiful birth, but most of the time it’s resulted in huge
amounts of disappointment and feelings of failure. Often plans for a water birth
have been ditched and the woman’s been rushed in for a caesarean. Or she may
have ended up with a highly managed birth, with plenty of interventions and pain
relief, for all the wrong reasons. At the end of most ‘old natural’ births the
new mum has felt disillusioned, disappointed, angry, even guilty—all feelings
she could well do without. In
Preparing for a Healthy Birth the centuries-old art of giving birth is
described in detail. It's a very straightforward approach to birth which has
already been experienced by many women. A normal healthy birth isn’t like an ‘old natural’
birth. It’s basically much more straightforward... It means giving
birth spontaneously, using all our knowledge of what makes birth safe, with
ready access to life-saving intervention in case it’s needed. In this very
healthy approach no pain relief or intervention is used, unless absolutely
necessary, because both pain relief and unnecessary interventions are likely to
disturb the normal processes and increase the level of risk to both mother and
your baby. This means no induction, electronic fetal monitoring, TENS, gas and
air, pethidine or epidurals. It means no complementary therapies such as
shiatsu, acupuncture and homeopathy—precisely because they can be so incredibly
powerful. In a nutshell, a healthy birth involves an ultra-natural approach, backed-up by
all the best our society has to offer. Unlike ‘old natural’, which didn’t
facilitate the normal, natural processes, a real healthy birth really is possible for most
women, as long as a few basic principles are respected.
Believe it or not, there are good reasons to experience pain:
- It makes labours smoother and easier. Also, since none of the
naturally-occurring processes are disturbed, they all proceed much more
smoothly. When women have an epidural, there are very good medical reasons why
it’s essential to use a blood pressure gauge, an intravenous drip, a urinary
catheter and anti-embolism stockings for the legs, not to mention an electronic
fetal monitor, a fetal scalp monitor and all kinds of other paraphernalia. No
pain relief means a smoother, faster, simpler labour and birth.
- You experience less pain overall. The sensations we experience while we’re
having contractions make us spontaneously adopt optimal positions for labour and
birth, which means a minimum of pain and injury, since we instinctively avoid
increasing our own pain. Women who labour without drugs so often report having
no tears, or only very minor ones which heal without stitches. Also, our bodies
naturally produce endorphins to help us get through the difficult moments and to
leave us feeling wonderful after the birth. Finally, since a spontaneous,
undisturbed birth means
that natural hormone production is not disturbed in any way, breastfeeding
almost always starts spontaneously (and easily) straight after the birth. That
all adds up to far less physical and emotional postnatal pain!
- It’s better for your relationship with your new baby. Needless to say, if you
and your baby are both alert at the moment of birth and in the hour or so
afterwards, you’re much more likely to ‘bond’ quickly and easily. If
breastfeeding goes smoothly, that’s also bound to mean a smoother, easier
mother-baby relationship, isn’t it?
As you’ll see, if you read
Preparing for a Healthy Birth doing without pain relief is actually a better strategy all round
for you, your baby and also by extension for your partner and your entire family
in both the short and the longer term.
Here are a few comments from real-live women who know…
How can you personally have a healthy birth?
The most important thing is to understand the normal processes and then make
sure they aren’t disturbed. Simply understanding the normal processes will make
you feel more comfortable and confident because you will then recognise each
stage as it happens when you’re in labour and giving birth – and most
importantly, you will know that everything is progressing as it should be. There
are other things which are crucial too, if you want to have the healthiest
possible birth, whatever your circumstances… and these constitute the ten steps
described in
Preparing for a Healthy Birth.
“What one has to do usually can be done.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
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